Power dividers and power combiners, also known as power splitters are passive devices used to divide or combine the amount of electromagnetic power in a transmission line to which the device is connected. Power circuits such as power dividers and power combiners are useful for distributing power among various paths and are of importance in a wide array of electronic equipment such as power amplifiers, phase-array antennas, mixers and active circulators. They can also be used to measure or monitor feeds to and from antennae, or used in cable television or telephone lines.
There are many known power divider/combiner designs, and one commonly employed, especially at frequencies above 500 MHz, is one commonly referred to as a Wilkinson Power Divider, described in “An N-way Power Divider” by E. Wilkinson, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, MTT-8, No. 1, January 1960, pages 116-118. The common Wilkinson power divider comprises two transmission lines running from an inport to two outports. The transmission lines are connected by an isolating resistor.
The Wilkinson power divider has numerous advantages over other power dividers, such as being constructed out of passive components, making it reciprocal, allowing it to be used as a power combiner as well. Further, the design allows for a high degree of isolation between ports, which may be crucial during certain implementations. The Wilkinson power divider is further lossless to a very high degree.
For applications requiring a larger bandwidth, a development of the Wilkinson power divider is often employed, called a multisection Wilkinson divider in which, after the first isolating resistor, additional impedances are deployed on both transmission lines, as well as another isolating resistor connecting them, or equivalent structures.
Depending on the application or the frequencies used, such a Wilkinson power divider can become relatively large. In various applications where space is at a very high premium, implementing such a Wilkinson power divider or a similar power combiner may then prove difficult or impossible.
There is thus room for an improved power circuit that can be used as a power divider or power combiner.